Get your tax IDs in Nebraska

An EIN, if you need one, takes minutes online. Nebraska then adds a sales tax permit if you sell taxable goods, withholding if you have employees, and an unemployment account once you employ someone.

What’s different in Nebraska

• State sales tax is 5.5%², and the local add-on is not one number. Cities and counties choose from 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 1.75%, or 2%, if local voters approve one, and no more than 1.5% in a county or a city of the metropolitan class⁴.
• Corporate income tax is one rate on all taxable income. It is 4.55% for a tax year that begins in 2026, and 3.99%⁷ for one that begins in 2027 or later.
• A disregarded LLC cannot elect the entity-level tax. A partnership or an S corporation can.
• Unemployment tax applies to the first $9,000 for most employers, and the first $24,000¹⁰ for category 20.
• You apply for an unemployment account when you hire, even before you owe the tax.

Do this

1. Get an EIN from the IRS if you need one. It is free and, if approved, issued immediately¹² online. Don’t pay a website to apply for you. Form 20 says if you are required to have an EIN and do not have it yet, you send it to the department once you receive it³. A business that registers for withholding must give its EIN¹.
2. Register with Nebraska Department of Revenue⁴. Use Form 20, the Nebraska Tax Application, online or on paper. Online, you get a Nebraska ID number at registration, or contact from the department within five business days. On paper, allow about two weeks for a paper Form 20¹. If the business already has a Nebraska ID, you cannot use the online registration for another tax. Use Form 20. The pages do not state a registration fee.* Check the screen before you submit.
3. If you sell taxable goods, get a sales tax permit and look up the place of the sale. A sales tax permit must be displayed at each retail location. A separate application is required for each Nebraska retail location unless you are in the Streamlined Sales Tax Agreement. A sales and use tax permit does not have to be renewed¹. The state piece is below. Use the Sales Tax Rate Finder linked from the sales and use tax page for the local piece.
4. File sales tax on the schedule Form 20 assigns. The form sorts you by estimated annual sales and use tax: monthly at $3,000 or more of estimated annual sales and use tax, quarterly at $900 to $2,999, and annually at less than $900³. Returns are due the 20th day of the month after the reporting period. A timely filer may keep a collection allowance of 2.5% of the first $3,000 of sales tax collected and remitted each month, up to $75⁴.
5. If you sell into Nebraska from outside the state, read the remote-seller line before you collect anything. You are engaged in business here after more than $100,000 of gross sales, or 200 or more transactions, in Nebraska. Sales through a marketplace count toward the remote-seller thresholds³. A marketplace has the same threshold. You may still need to register for sales you make outside the platform. Form 20 says every retailer, including a marketplace, files Form 10.
6. Register for withholding before you withhold on Nebraska wages. Withholding reaches employees, including nonresidents, for services performed in Nebraska. It can also reach some non-employee payments and some unregistered construction contractors. Form 20 asks whether average monthly Nebraska withholding will exceed $500, and whether annual Nebraska withholding will be less than $500. The starting-a-business page says you file monthly if monthly withholding exceeds $500, quarterly if it does not, and annually if it is less than $500 a year. On the form you can choose quarterly or annually, if you answer yes to the small-withholding question or you already file federal withholding annually³. A withholding certificate does not renew each year¹. The hiring guide covers the federal side.
7. Open an unemployment account when you employ someone, and report new hires. The tests are below. New hires and rehires go to the Department of Health and Human Services within twenty days after the hire or rehire. The statute covers any employee who is hired or rehired, for any amount of pay¹³. It does not mention independent contractors in that section.* Do not add a contractor to that report unless the department’s form asks for one.

Rates and income tax

State sales and use tax is 5.5%² of gross receipts from sales of tangible personal property, rentals, utilities, admissions, warranties, lodging, software, digital goods, certain services, and bundled transactions. Local tax may be 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 1.75%, or 2%, if local voters approve one, and no more than 1.5% in a county or a city of the metropolitan class. A retailer that opted into the Avenue One Good Life District collects state tax at 2.75% on certain transactions completed in the district⁴. The rate finder is the way to charge the right total.

Individual income tax, for owners who report the business on their own return, uses the 2026 calculation schedule. It starts at 2.46%. A single filer then pays 3.51% of the amount over $4,130, and 4.55% of the amount over $24,760. A joint return pays 3.51% of the amount over $8,250, and 4.55% of the amount over $49,530⁵. The schedule prints one more line at that same top rate. This page does not compute your tax. Returns are due the same day as the federal return and payment⁴. The 2026 calendar lists the calendar-year individual return on April 15, 2026⁹.

Nebraska’s corporate income tax applies to corporations with any federal taxable income from Nebraska sources. A C corporation files Form 1120N. The due date is the 15th day of the fourth month after the year ends, for most corporations. A corporation with a June 30 year files by the 15th day of the third month after a June 30 year end⁶. The 2026 calendar lists the calendar-year Form 1120N on April 15, 2026⁹.

Section 77-2734.02 sets the rate: 4.55% on all taxable income for a taxable year beginning in 2026, and 3.99%⁷ for a taxable year beginning in 2027 or later. The Department of Revenue’s business income tax FAQ still shows an older table labeled 2023 and beyond: 5.58% up to $100,000, then $5,580 plus 7.25% of the excess⁶. That table is out of date.

An extension can run up to seven months after the due date. Interest is still due on unpaid tax during an extension. A late-payment penalty may be 5% of the unpaid tax per month, up to 25%⁶.

An S corporation is not charged that corporate income tax. It still files Form 1120-SN. S corporations, partnerships, and LLCs with Nebraska-source income file a Nebraska return⁶. The 2026 calendar lists calendar-year Form 1065N and Form 1120-SN on March 16, 2026⁹. That calendar does not print the 2027 dates.* Check the next calendar when it is posted.

The election is open to an eligible partnership, including an LLC taxed as a partnership, or an S corporation. A publicly traded partnership cannot elect. A disregarded LLC cannot make the election. For 2026 the entity-level rate is 4.55%. Estimated payments start when the tax after credits is $400 or more, for tax years after 2023⁸. Whether the election helps depends on your numbers. Ask a CPA. This page does not pick it for you.

Unemployment

File for an unemployment account number when you first employ someone, even if you are not liable yet. You can apply at NEworks. The department decides liability. A general business employer becomes liable at $1,500 or more of gross wages in any calendar quarter, or when it employs one or more people on a day in 20 different weeks of a calendar year¹¹. Other tests cover a purchase of a business, farm work, and household work. The worker does not pay this tax.

The new-employer rate is for an employer without reported wages in each of the two preceding four-quarter periods ending September 30¹⁴. For 2026 the combined-tax table lists 1.25% for a new non-construction employer and 5.4% for a new construction employer. The wage base on that table is $9,000, and $24,000¹⁰ for category 20. Rates for later years are on the same table. A new employer’s rate is not a promise for year two.

The quarterly combined tax is due by the last day of the month after the quarter ends. The employer guide adds a penalty when the quarterly combined tax and wage report is not filed by the tenth day of the second month after the quarter. The penalty is 0.1% of total gross wages for the quarter, and not less than $25 or more than $200¹¹.

New hire reports: any employee who is hired or rehired, for any amount of pay, within twenty days after the hire or rehire. If you report electronically, the statute allows two monthly transmissions, if needed, not less than twelve days or more than sixteen days apart¹³.

Withholding’s annual reconciliation, Form W-3N, is due January 31, or the next business day if January 31 is a Saturday or Sunday¹⁵. The 2026 calendar lists it on February 2, 2026. The same calendar lists Form 941N on April 30, 2026 for the first quarter⁹.

What you get back

An EIN from the IRS, a Nebraska ID number, a sales tax permit if you registered for sales tax, a withholding certificate if you have employees, and an unemployment account number once the department sets one up. Write down the sales tax filing frequency Form 20 assigns. It follows the estimate you enter.